This invention relates to an apparatus for unwinding fabric from a roll with the desired plane kept upward.
Initially fabric just woven from a weaving machine is generally take up on a roll. Before the fabric is cut, therefore, it is necessary to unwind the fabric from a roll, and cut the fabric into a prescribed length to later be superposed or folded together. A fabric unwinder is used in carrying out the above-mentioned operations.
With the conventional fabric unwinder, a travelling body is reciprocatively set lengthwise on a rectangular work table. A fabric wound about a shaft is rotatably set on the travelling body. The forward portion of the travelling body is provided with a plurality of feed rolls spatially arranged in the moving direction. The feed rolls, rotated by a drive motor, unwind a fabric from the shaft to transport it on a work table. Therefore, the conventional fabric unwinder is accompained with the drawbacks that, when unwound from the shaft by the feed rolls, the fabric undergoes tension, and a thin fabric is subjected to horizontal creasing or elastic shrinkage or elongation and presents difficulties in being smoothly unwound. Further, when a roll of, for example, thick synthetic leather, wound about a shaft, has a large diameter, a relatively great force has to be applied in initiating the unwinding of said roll. Therefore, slips tend to take place between the leather and feed rolls, presenting difficulties in effecting the constant unwinding of said leather roll.
With the conventional fabric unwinder, it is necessary to draw out the leading end of a fabric from its roll, and fit it to the feed rolls. To remove the fabric roll from the fabric unwinder, it is necessary to separate the leading end of the fabric from the feed rolls and take up the fabric. Since the above-mentioned steps are manually taken, the conventional fabric underwinder has the drawback that the work efficiency is considerbly low.
Particularly when, with the conventional fabric unwinder, the front side and backside of the same fabric are superposed in an alternating relationship by swinging the roll shaft in opposite directions, the fabric unwinder causes the fabric to be taken off the feed rolls each time the fabric is cut. After the fabric is completely taken up on the shaft, the shaft is horizontally swung through 180.degree. to reverse the front and back sides of the fabric, and the leading end of the fabric is fitted to the feed rolls. Therefore, the conventional fabric unwinder has the drawback that the above-mentioned operation steps consume a great deal of time.